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Physics Nobel Won By Laser Wizardry -- Laureates Include First Woman in 55 Years (nature.com)
A trio of laser scientists have won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work using intense beams to capture superfast processes and to manipulate tiny objects. From a report: The laureates include Donna Strickland, who is the first woman to win the award in 55 years. Strickland, at the University of Waterloo, Canada, will share half the 9 million Swedish krona (US$1 million) prize with her former supervisor, Gerard Mourou, from the Ecole Polytechnique, in Palaiseau, France. The other half of the prize went to Arthur Ashkin, of Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey.
Strickland and Mourou pioneered a way to produce the shortest, most intense pulses of light ever created, which are now used throughout science to unravel processes that previously appeared instantaneous, such as the motion of electrons within atoms, as well as in laser-eye surgery. Ashkin won the prize for his pioneering development of 'optical tweezers', beams of laser light that can grab and control microscopic objects such as viruses and cells. Further reading: The Guardian.
Strickland and Mourou pioneered a way to produce the shortest, most intense pulses of light ever created, which are now used throughout science to unravel processes that previously appeared instantaneous, such as the motion of electrons within atoms, as well as in laser-eye surgery. Ashkin won the prize for his pioneering development of 'optical tweezers', beams of laser light that can grab and control microscopic objects such as viruses and cells. Further reading: The Guardian.
she will never know if she was really worthy of it, or just a diversity token.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
"Gender doesn't matter! Everyone is exactly the same as everyone else!"
Yet we're constantly having "I'm a woman therefore my accomplishments are special!"
If gender doesn't matter, why is it constantly thrown in our faces?
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
People do not get that fundamental physics is over (you would not call seriously "string theory" "scientific" would you?).
I know I am repeating what Lord Kelvin said to his embarrassment just before great discoveries in relativistic physics, quantum physics, etc.
Nevertheless, that's truth: everything ends, everything has limits, humanity has limits and science has limits.
The clear indication that we are close to the limit is absence of ANY fundamental discoveries since a long time ago.
We are gradually shifting towards applied science and mere technology. All of three fields, basic science, applied science and technology are essential for humanity, but the fact is that the first one is almost over or probably over already.
Call them for what they are: Nobel Prizes in Technology
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Laughable. It's not over until we know everything, and we clearly don't.
Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
Yet we're constantly having "I'm a woman therefore my accomplishments are special!"
You seem to be mistaking an argument for equality for an argument for preference. Perhaps you would understand if your accomplishments were dismissed as unimportant because of your skin color or age or gender or some other irrelevant bit of your physiology rather than the quality of your ideas. Women aren't arguing for special treatment. They are arguing for EQUAL treatment. It only sounds like a call for "special" treatment to people who are missing the point.
If gender doesn't matter, why is it constantly thrown in our faces?
Gender SHOULDN'T matter for topics like this yet It DOES matter because too many people (like yourself) make it matter in the wrong places. Gender is supposed to matter in some circumstances but physics isn't one of them. It is really hard to explain why there hasn't been a single woman worthy of a Nobel prize in Physics in over a half century without invoking some amount of sexism in the explanation. Maybe unintentional sexism but sexism all the same. They don't deserve the award because of their gender but they also shouldn't be excluded from it because of their gender either. Sexism is real and if you think fighting against it is "throwing it in your face" then you are part of the problem.
People do not get that fundamental physics is over (you would not call seriously "string theory" "scientific" would you?).
[useless crap deleted]
LOLWUT!?!?!
You MIGHT be able to get away with that after gravity is unified with all the other forces.
When you look at the technology that in a mere century and a half grew out of the unification of just electricity and magnetism, and knowing that there's still a crapload of fundamentals about gravity alone that we still do not know, saying crap such as "fundamental physics is over" is just painting yourself as a pompous, arrogant know-it-all spouting off in ignorance in an attempt to look smarter than everyone else.
You don't look smart. You look stupid.
If ignorance is happiness, you're probably the happiest person on Earth.
Nobel peace prize given to:
Obama - ordered the killing of thousands with drone strikes
Al Gore - made a movie
Yasser Arafat - a terrorist leader
Nobel peace prize NOT given to:
Gandhi - advocating peaceful protesting
Pretty much sums it up
People do not get that fundamental physics is over
Yeah yeah, people were making this bullshit argument centuries ago.
(you would not call seriously "string theory" "scientific" would you?).
As long as it make predictions that can be empirically tested then of course I would.
I know I am repeating what Lord Kelvin said to his embarrassment just before great discoveries in relativistic physics, quantum physics, etc.
And he was just as wrong as you are.
The clear indication that we are close to the limit is absence of ANY fundamental discoveries since a long time ago.
What are you babbling about? You are in a scientific golden age for discoveries. Furthermore we have well known holes in our knowledge of fundamental physics. We have no way to reconcile gravity to quantum mechanics. We can't explain large amounts of seemingly missing matter in the universe. Just because we're not rolling out a new theory of special relativity every other week doesn't mean we've explained everything. It was literally centuries between Newton and Einstein but the only reason Einstein's work was such a breakthrough was because of a LOT of important work done in time between the two men.
Call them for what they are: Nobel Prizes in Technology
You seem to have a huge misapprehension. Physics only advances when we can built devices to test our theories independent of human senses. Theories are fine but they are meaningless without the tools to verify them. Furthermore we cannot refine our theories without the data from these tools which inform us how the world actually behaves. A theory of gravity waves is meaningless unless you have some tool to test for their existence. Physics isn't just blackboards and chalk.
We are gradually shifting towards applied science and mere technology. All of three fields, basic science, applied science and technology are essential for humanity, but the fact is that the first one is almost over or probably over already.
When you see a shift away from basic science and into applied science / technology, it generally just means our instrumentation is not sufficient for basic science to march forward at an equal pace. Once technology improves enough to enable new methods in basic science, the pendulum swings back.
We have so much left to learn that we are nowhere near hitting the limits of what science can discover.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
she will never know if she was really worthy of it, or just a diversity token.
We do know you are a sexist jerk if you really believe that.
Funny, "progressives" say that Clarence Thomas would never have been on the Supreme Court if he weren't black.
Thus actually demonstrating the corrosive nature of "affirmative action" - and why it's a horrible idea.
Gender SHOULDN'T matter for topics like this yet It DOES matter because too many people (like yourself) make it matter in the wrong places.
How do you expect something to matter LESS when you put MORE emphasis on it? That's the part I don't get.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Unless you just want everything to be tossed on the floor, I fail to see the benefit.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It's simply because there are less women working at the highest levels in these fields, which has as an underlying cause that women, in general, are less inclined to put in what it takes to lead such research teams (ie. putting work before family, foregoing socializing, personal hygiene, etc).
Less women willing to make such sacrifices (or only part-time) means they're competing with more men willing to do so, which naturally leads to men being over represented and thus having increased chances of winning prestigious merit based prices.
But we can just call all that sexism and pretend that men and women are exactly equal and that millions of years of evolution couldn't possibly have had an impact on how men and women mentally develop, and how that might effect their careers.
You can't know everything. Science is about _repeatable_ phenomena. There is vast areas in existing world where they are not repeatable.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
>We have so much left to learn that we are nowhere near hitting the limits of what science can discover.
Empty declarations.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
While we may never know everything, we may be running into the reality that we simply can't conduct experiments/observe enough to solve what we don't know. There is an exponential factor in difficulty of getting new data and we are increasingly stuck being unable to get further.
Already it seems like it is mostly coming up with new models to describe existing observations, so we are to a large extent stuck with just re-examining the same data over and over again.
We do occasionally get new observations and it is great, but how much of the field is able to drive getting new observations is relatively smaller.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
It's simply because there are less women working at the highest levels in these fields, which has as an underlying cause that women, in general, are less inclined to put in what it takes to lead such research teams (ie. putting work before family, foregoing socializing, personal hygiene, etc).
Whoa their Sparky! Could you drag out a few more memes there? I've worked with a lot of physicists and scientists, and the ladies had perfectly acceptable hygiene. And you might be surprised at how many even played sports. Hell - I'm into Ice Hockey, and shower twice a day, and many buds are into sports like handball and running. I mixed genders in that group.
Now, discarding the memes, There is a particular mindset and way of thinking required of a physicist. There is almost certainly a thought process difference - in generalization - that goes along gender lines.
Point is, my wife, who is exceptionally brilliant, simply does not think in the same way as I do. I on the other hand, am likewise not too bad at what I do.
And here is the takeaway. Rather than engage in some battle over who is "better" - and the answer is neither - we use our respective differences as synergy, not some age old misogynist/misandrist shitfest. Its like we serve as each other's mentat.
Less women willing to make such sacrifices (or only part-time) means they're competing with more men willing to do so, which naturally leads to men being over represented and thus having increased chances of winning prestigious merit based prices.
But we can just call all that sexism and pretend that men and women are exactly equal and that millions of years of evolution couldn't possibly have had an impact on how men and women mentally develop, and how that might effect their careers.
Now you are back on track.
If a woman wants to be a physicist, nothing will stop her. If she doesn't, no one can make her.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Prior art.
The Washington Post and New York Times have been manipulating liberals minds for years.
Have gnu, will travel.
is why aren't lasers doing cool shit?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
You don't know what the fuck you are talking about. Modern Science has a laundry list of fundamental problems:
* Problems with the Standard Model
* Problems with Big Bang
* Unsolved Problems in Physics
E.g. The SI system is a clusterfuck of 7 "fundamental units" but more then half of them are *dependent* on others.
*facepalm*
E.g. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics states that Energy can not be created nor destroyed, only transformed. Ergo, the universe has always existed (in some form.)
* Where did this energy come from?
* Where did the all the Laws of Physics come from???
Furthermore, Scientists are completely clueless about:
* The composition of Consciousness -- everyone admits it exists but there is no way to measure it,
* Conscious is the foundation of reality -- NOT matter. That is, higher dimensions are proven to exist with the shared OBE (Out-of-Body-Experience),
* Consciousness can be transferred,
* The majority of life in the universe are on planets with 2 suns
* The majority of extraterrestrials are bipedal, with 4 digits
* White holes at the center of galaxies,
* The 2 missing fundamental forces: Strong and Weak intergalactic forces,
* The link between (macro) teleportation and time travel, due to space-time being relative
* Death, namely Life before Life and Life after Death
* Darwinism is Junk Science (there are ZERO accidents)
* Creationism is Junk Faith (humans were genetically engineered)
I could go on about how ignorant man is about reality
e.g. Science is a male, linear, approach to (intellectual) knowledge. Scientists don't even know about the other female, nonlinear system of (experiential) knowledge.
but the point is:
There will ALWAYS be something to discover.
Lastly, when First Contact starts to happen ~2029 it will be the catalyst for people to start realizing just how clueless our species is and has been.
Did MST3K do that one?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Normally my white cis male misogyny self can't stand to see women succeed in science. But FREAKEN LASERS man!
I know you're trolling, but I think you missed an opportunity. You left out sharks. You can't have "FREAKEN LASERS" [sic] without sharks. You're the type who'd be okay with using something stupid, like mutant sea bass, to try and make a point.
> If a woman wants to be a physicist, nothing will stop her. If she doesn't, no one can make her.
That's just incredibly naive.
Your statement is bullshit. You apparently believe thatr men are pushed along, with nary a cloudy day, their road to physics paved with gold.
When the fact is - it's not easy. This is not a fraternity. Today, there are sexists on both sides. There are large scale disagreements.
But here's the truth coward. This is not a field for the easily dissuaded. If you have a theory, there are going to be those who oppose it. Either because of belief, or even devil's advocate. I've sat in rooms where my ideas are called bullshit. I've been called an asshole. (so what's new)The lady physicists and scientists get no free pass, nor do they want one. The opposition is part of the process.
But here's the kicker.
I don't care. Neither do they. They are in this because this is what they want to do with their life. This is not a world where certain groups are above criticism.
Naive? What is naive is the concept that anyone, male or female will sit down one day and say "I think my passion is to be a physicist! At least until someone anyone opposes me, then I'm nothing and it is their fault."
Sorry cowardly entity, but if you want to be a physicist, you must have passion - real passion, not one that you get from a career day in 3rd grade, but one you know you have. And real passion is a white hot pillar of flame that drags you along with it. The men and women who I made careers with had it. Interestingly enough, the biggest skeptics of today's modus were those same women.
Today, some folks are attempting to redefine passion as a mild interest. In truth, so few people have real passion.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
None of the problems you mentioned have a clear experimental path to verifiability
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
"55 years" is practically identical with the time that "women's liberation" first became a common term. If it takes 55 years of pressure to get ONE Nobel awarded, it's not a very big effect.
She might be a "token" of course, in the Jackie Robinson sense: if there's a pervasive tendency to dismiss a group, that dismissal is highlighted when a particularly un-dismissable talent comes along, and you kind of have to recognize them, however late.
If there was a Nobel in Physics awarded to a woman every five years, when less than 20% of physicists are women, that would be a strong indicator. (17% of Cornell physics grad students are women). This is pretty much the opposite, being way under 17% of the recent Nobels.
It's cool to see this news come out today, when even Canadian Conservatives are reluctantly admitting admiration for Chrystia Freeland and her calm, don't-get-insulted renegotiations of NAFTA. She did indeed give up some concessions to Mr. Trump's horrors of the Canadian Dairy Industry. Under NAFTA, they were allowed access to only 3.25% of the Canadian dairy market. Under the new agreement, they will have access to a bigly 3.6%. No wonder Mr. Trump has hailed it as "historic".
but the scales are already over balanced on the male side hence they are trying to bring both sides into balance. Its just the whining misogynists who don't get it.
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
aawwww.. your misogyny betrays you
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
Advanced precision instruments are opening up unexplored areas of research and a multitude of industrial and medical applications. . . Strickland and Mourouâ(TM)s newly invented technique, called chirped pulse amplification, CPA, soon became standard for subsequent high-intensity lasers . . . The innumerable areas of application have not yet been completely explored.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Why are there 4 fundamental forces (wait, 5?) instead of 2 or 3? Why the three dimensions (plus time)? Why is space expanding? Will it expand forever? Why does the fabric of space wobble? Are gravitons a thing? And I still don't get how black-holes can be singularities, but retain rotational momentum, and be a donut... but also still a singularity. Aren't we still confused about how quantum mechanics jive with... gravity and electromagnetism? We've still only got interpretations of just whateverthefuck is going on in the dual slit experiment. Copenhagen is winning, I guess? Wooo popularity contests.
There's plenty of fundamental physics we don't know. I dunno if we'll ever get around to answering them, but you can't say "it's done".
Worth reading Candace Pert's book Molecules of Emotion as wikipedia's entry on her states:
"...an eye-opener into the intellectual warfare of modern scientific discovery – the gamesmanship, the sly purloining of others’ results – but also into the round-the-clock work, the exhilaration of a shared breakthrough, and the slow, painful rise of women in the scientific professions. "
The most memorable thing about her book was that her boss Solomon H. Snyder, who headed the lab, was the one who got the Albert Lasker Award for her discovery of the opioid receptor. What made it worse was he'd told her to stop working on it, that it was going no where. She ignored him and continued in secret.
Pert was told to shut up and accept it as that was how things where done in academia and standard protocol. Threats were made and later carried out after she wrote to the foundation that awards the prize to protest at being excluded. The 3 men who got the Lasker never got the Nobel and academia turned on her for breaking rank.
So whenever I see a Nobel being awarded today my first thought is "I wonder who really discovered it?"
And yet there hasn't been a female Nobel Prize for Physics will in over 50 years. No matter how you cut it, at least *some* of the reason for such a long gap between awards has to be driven by sexism.
It's good luck to be superstitious
Where? Who by? How?
Sorry but 'it must be sexism' is a fucking weak argument.
Women get more scholarships than men, the education system was changed to give them better educational outcomes, more women get top grades at school, more women go to university, more women graduate, more women get post graduate qualifications, hiring in academic positions favours women.
I see plenty of sexism but it sure as fuck doesn't explain the Nobel award for physics.
You do not know what science is. Science is not to answer ANY questions.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Science answers all sorts of questions. Even some philosophical questions like "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?". The answer is that the egg arose way earlier in evolution than chickens and chickens immediate predecessor also laid eggs. So some Velociraptor-like thing laid an egg which hatched a more chicken-like thing. But the egg came first. It also answered "If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear, does it make a sound?" Which I always thought sounded like bullshit, of course it makes a sound. But the answer turns out to be if "no one" means really anything and you can isolate the forest from the rest of the universe, then it exists in a state of super-position occupying every possible state (Copenhagen interpretation) including fallen and not fallen. Until something interacts with it and collapses it's waveform, it doesn't even really exist except in a background book-keeping sort of way. This makes philosophers grumble about "missing points" and "seeing the bigger picture" because they don't actually like solving problems or answering questions. Because they are useless wankers that need to go get a real job. But anyway, if you want to get pedantic science is process of figuring out all this shit while scientific knowledge is stuff we've figured out, at least partially. Honestly the term has really just encapsulated the later by this point. But you're forgetting the most important detail of calling out a No True Scotsman. You have to stress what's missing. Otherwise you've got the Internet equivalent of a ding-dong-ditch.
* Consciousness can be transferred,
There's a pretty clear experimental path to verifying that.
"Hey Bob, the code word is spaghetti" *CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER NOISES* "So, completely different body, sack of meat, or computer that wasn't Bob before, what's the code word?"
You could say that's just memory, but it'd be one hell of a big step and it'd likely earn you a nobel prize. Or at least a copy of you would earn it. This is where things get messy. But with enough personality tests they could see what the side-effects were. If something has all your memories and all your personality... that's you. It has at least as much "you"-ness as you do before and after you go to sleep.